1 of 3 Pilot Boats delivered to the Port of Milford Haven

St Brides, the first of three 19m Pilot Boats built by Mainstay Marine to be delivered to the Port of Milford Haven.

The £3.6m contract is a flagship project for Mainstay Marine Solutions with delivery for the second and third due in April and July respectively. The vessels are an upgraded version of the ‘Picton’ Pilot Boat built by the company in 2006.

The 48 tonne vessels, designed by Camarc Design, are capable of reaching up to 14 knots with 12 persons on board. The craft are designed to be used extensively in heavy weather and are likely to operate in swells up to 6m significant wave height.

The vessels are expected to withstand 1, 000 vessel boarding impacts over an average duty cycle of 2, 500 hours per year.

Following a public competition administered by the Port, the pilot boats are to be named after three significant landmarks within Pembrokeshire – ‘St Brides’, ‘St Govans’ and ‘St Davids’. The Harbourmaster at the Port of Milford Haven, Bill Hirst, commented ‘’the names have great local relevance and we will be proud to put them on the water”.

Alec Don, Chief Executive of the Port of Milford Haven said ‘This substantial investment will provide the port with three identical modern state-of-the-art boats with full parts interchangeability. These boats, together with our highly skilled and trained crews constitute the backbone of our ability to provide a safe and reliable service to our customers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The boats have been built to the highest possible standard on time and to budget here in Wales by Mainstay’’.

Stewart Graves, Managing Director of Mainstay Marine, commented: “Mainstay has always prided itself on our reputation for quality. The amount of positive feedback on the finish of the Pilot boats has been particularly overwhelming. Continued repeat business for our Pilot Boat build expertise is testament to our finished product. We are grateful for the continued support from the Port.

Keel Marine were commissioned to overseen the build progress and report on key milestones. The relationship has worked well throughout the build.

‘’We knew that delivering three pilots boats consecutively would be demanding but our comprehensive skill base, both in design and directly during the build, have been instrumental in keeping to a tight time schedule’’ stated Project Engineer, Jon Lewis.

Mainstay Marine has fulfilled several challenging contracts within the last 12 months, including the launch of a 50 ton wind farm support vessel, a major refit of a multicat and fabrication and assembly of the recently deployed 230 ton Delta Stream device for Tidal Energy Ltd.

A naming ceremony will take place for all three vessels late July this year.